Poh's Kitchen My Cooking Adventures

Poh's Kitchen: My Cooking Adventures

Come on a journey with Poh Ling Yeow through the wonderful world of food!

Based on her popular ABC TV show, Poh's Kitchen, Poh Ling Yeow takes us on a fascinating culinary adventure in her first cookbook. On a mission to reinterpret the classic recipes of her childhood, and to bring new and exciting dishes to the Australian palate, Poh draws us into her life, her art, and her playful and creative approach to food.

Through more than 80 recipes, she traverses wildly different cultures and cooking styles - drawing inspiration from Australia, UK, Italy, France, India, Thailand as well as China and Malaysia to cook everything from a lamb shank casserole to a delicious Malaysian sticky rice and custard dessert. The recipes are innovative, accessible and designed for the adventurous home cook keen to expand and broaden their repertoire.

Cooking alongside renowned chefs such as David Thompson, Neil Perry, Antonio Carluccio, Ian Parmenter, Ragini Dey and Emmanuel Mollois, Poh brings to life an eclectic range of dishes from breakfast meals, soups, seafood, poultry, meat, vegetables to delicious sweet things.

Capturing her own colourful artistic style, the book is beautifully designed and photographed, and reflects her view that cooking is like painting; very much about escaping into a zone that consumes and inspires. Her book aims to challenge and empower home cooks to experiment and dish up meals that are so magnificent they will bring dinner conversation to a standstill.

Poh Ling Yeow is a TV phenomenon who shot to fame as the runner-up in 2009's MasterChef Australia. Now the star of her own ABC TV show, Poh's Kitchen, where she cooks alongside celebrity chefs, she continues to delight fans everywhere with her innovative and playful approach. A 36-year-old of Chinese-Malaysian descent, Poh is also a professional artist. She lives in Adelaide.

Poh's Kitchen: My Cooking Adventures
ABC Books
Author: Poh Ling Yeow
ISBN: 9780733328305
Price: $39.99

Interview with Poh Ling Yeow

Question: What recipes and cuisine is featured in Poh's Kitchen My Cooking Adventures?

Poh Ling Yeow: It has everything! French Pastries to South East Asian Noodles to baking to Indian and gnocchi, Italian! The book covers quite a lot of cultures, actually. The idea of the book is that it is for an adventurous beginner cook or a tentative cook- someone who doesn't really venture out of their cooking comfort zone, much and that is what this book is about. I want people to learn basics that might seem a little bit intimidating. My style or voice of writing is quite different; the concept of the book is that, even with complex recipes, I talk them through it. A lot of recipe books skip over processes and if you don't cook you'd have no idea what the recipe is talking about, I tried to fill in those gaps that a lot of recipe books don't. When I say mix I always specify whether it needs to be mixed with an electric beater or mix with a wooden spoon. I make things really clear because I have seen so many of those things being overlooked and that excludes people from being able to buy recipe books and enjoy them.


Question: I know there are over 80 recipes in Poh's Kitchen: My Cooking Adventures but are you able to pick a favourite?

Poh Ling Yeow: Sure! The Nonya Chicken Curry is a great one because that is one that I have eaten from day dot and it is very much apart of my culture. I love to bake and the Friands is a great recipe for a non-baker, they're absolutely delicious. The Cherry and Hazelnut Friands is a muffin method basically you just throw everything in and just mix it. You are using nutmeal which means it is beautiful and rich, there is so much more flavour than a cupcake. I also love Parmesan Soldiers with Hard Boiled Egg- it has a really cute picture.


Question: What originally inspired you to begin cooking and creating recipes?

Poh Ling Yeow: I haven't created all the recipes, some of them are my own and some of them are recipes that I have cooked that are really yum and a lot are from friends and family; I always dedicate the recipe to them at the beginning of each recipe, if it's from someone that I know. There is a story too because cooking is all about sharing and nurturing, I love the stories so I always include those.

Cooking came really naturally for me; I think it was actually from watching cooking shows that I was inspired and that cooking began to catch my imagination. Cooking really speaks to me, creatively. The process is very similar to painting, for me; it is a process that I can get really lost in and I find it very therapeutic. When I migrated I was so keen on assimilating, as a kid, that I lost so much of my culture, so food is a really tangible way for me to connect with my past culture and hand it through to my future.


Question: What is your favourite thing about your ABC TV show, Poh's Kitchen?

Poh Ling Yeow: I absolutely adore the ABC show, they show so much confidence in me, and if I want to do a story on a really obscure ingredient they'll let me do it. I am on the journey, as well, with the audience because a lot of stories I do, that are about me finding out about something, it is because I am curious as well. For the show I see myself as a mediator between a chef and a home cook, I see the role of educating as really important. I really wanted to inspire people to cook; it's not that I want them to cook that recipe but for them to take a few things away from watching me go through a process, which I hope is helpful. Even if I'm making a cake, that you probably wouldn't make, maybe you could take away a few of the techniques and use them for something else; I really hope the show has this effect.


Question: Can you talk about how you life has changed since MasterChef?

Poh Ling Yeow: I have lived a pretty ideal lifestyle, before MasterChef, as I was working fulltime as an artist and making a good living. My life had a lot of creative autonomy and total control over what I did with my time, it was very relaxed, I could roll out of bed, make a coffee, play with my dog and do basically, whatever I wanted, I had a lot of freedom and now my life is very dictated by schedules and I have a lot of people to answer too with the publishing and TV show.


Interview by Brooke Hunter